Doctor Who Terror from the Thames
by H.G.Wells
Summary: A short spin-off of The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky. During the Sontaran attack on Earth, their arch-enemies observe the failed attack, and attempt to steal the ATMOS weapon during the aftermath, which could win the perpetual Sontaran-Rutan war.


**Doctor Who – Terror from the Thames**

The star that was visible was no more than a small red dwarf – but it was indeed a very ferocious dwarf, with regular eruptions of solar radiation lethal to any life form dwelling on its few rocky planets – or travelling through space close by.

It was for this reason that the small battle fleet that was passing the star kept its distance. All ships had their radiation shields up to full, and were beginning to leave the system, in search of an enemy they had been ordered to pursue. The enemy was in this part of the galaxy according to their military intelligence, but so far the fleet had detected nothing but the odd transmission that they intercepted. And they were not even sure if they had been picking up _Sontaran _transmissions.

For the fleet was of the Rutan host, designated hunter fleet _Gamma_. The fleet was so named as it had been hastily formed to track down a Sontaran fleet that had put to space and sailed into this area on an unknown mission. The Rutan fleet consisted of nothing more than four destroyers escorting a massive glowing spherical carrier, or mother ship. This ship carried hundreds of fighters and scout ships, all readied for an expected battle. The pointed, snake-egg shaped destroyers kept their cannons and missiles primed, and their crews alert. The ships were much like the Rutans themselves, as they were all formed of crystalline bio-matter, grown rather than built. Yet they moved like any other spaceship, and were more than a match for Sontaran warships. This particular fleet was larger than the enemy fleet. The only problem was in finding the enemy. Somewhere in this backwater part of the galaxy was the 10th Sontaran battle fleet, and the Rutan high command had made finding it a top priority, as it was the only Sontaran fleet not currently engaged with their enemies in the war that had raged for millennia. The Sontarans were up to something, and the Rutans suspected that it was some kind of flank attack – or something else. The fleet intended to find out.

Hunter fleet _Gamma _began to leave the red dwarf known to humans as Barnard's star. On board the carrier _Lantern of Victory_, a member of the Rutan controller caste was seated in the middle of the ship's control centre, or bridge. Rutan society is strictly hive intelligence, ruled over by a single queen on the home world. But their ships, fleets or armies require some kind of local co-ordinating intelligence, an equivalent to a Captain, General or Admiral. For this purpose, the Rutan controller was created, with a larger brain and body than other Rutans, conditioned for military tactics.

This particular controller had control over thousands of Rutans of the average caste, the large green oval-shaped jellyfish well known to other alien races. They serve as warriors, pilots and scouts. The warriors in the assembly bays of all the ships in the fleet were gathered in great phalanxes, and had by now donned their exoskeleton battle shells. Within these suits of organic armour on tentacle legs, they could focus their powerful bioelectric attacks at any given target, by means of a long shock lance, which was also an effective melee weapon. When it came to boarding Sontaran ships in battle, they would be difficult to stop, and Sontaran soldiers had grown to fear them in this war that had been fought for thousands of years. The pilots were just waiting to get into their fighters to face the Sontaran battle pods. Everyone was ready for battle with the ancient enemy, and the Rutan controller already had detailed tactics prepared in its large brain. The temperature inside the ships was kept cold, the way the Rutans like it, for heat is highly painful to them. As soon as they had a precise location of the 10th Sontaran battle fleet, they would send a scout to gather intelligence about the enemy and the scene of battle. If possible, the scout would use the excellent Rutan infiltration and shape-shifting abilities to gain information. But all of that was of no use if they had no idea where the Sontarans were, and what they were up to.

The controller wondered why the Sontarans would send an advanced battle fleet, (which Rutan military intelligence knew included a mother ship, a large squadron of battle pods and a powerful force of shock troops) into such an insignificant part of the galaxy. Not that this area was unknown to the Rutans, since they had tried to conquer one of the life-bearing planets in this area, known as Earth, one hundred Earth years before. At that time they had been losing the war, and Earth seemed to be the last planet the Sontarans expected a Rutan assault base to be set up on. On that occasion they had been foiled by a renegade time lord known only as "The Doctor", who was determined to protect Earth and its inhabitants. As a result, the Rutans had avoided trying to invade earth again.

Could the enemy now be trying the same trick? It was possible and after all, their situation was desperate. The Sontarans were now beginning to lose the war. Although they were the best soldiers in the galaxy, they were suffering from heavy losses, mostly as a result of the Rutans' infiltration techniques and upgraded warships. Even their mass reproduction abilities could not fill the gap of losses created by several successful Rutan offensives, and they were slowly being driven to the fringes of the galaxy. The Sontarans needed an immediate solution. If they were trying to invade Earth and use it as a bridgehead, they would surely fail once the glorious Rutan army arrived on the scene, and smashed the Sontaran rabble to dust. That was the presiding thought of the controller, and of all of hunter fleet _Gamma. _Like the Sontarans, the Rutans are fiercely nationalistic and militaristic, especially in times of war. And they were well prepared for such times.

After a long period of fruitless searching, the _Lantern of Victory_ and her escorts intercepted a faint signal that was transmitted in Sontaran code. The mother ship's computer displayed the decoded version of the message on the main screens in the control centre. It seemed to be some kind of directive signal, possibly to ground forces. And it was coming from the direction of the Sol system, to be precise, Earth. It was clearly an invasion order of some kind. But there was a part of the message that neither the computer nor its Rutan operators could decipher.

_Activate all ATMOS._

"ATMOS?" hummed the controller. "A Sontaran special unit perhaps? Computer, analyse the possibility."

The Computer flashed an on screen response.

"No known Sontaran units with name 'ATMOS'."

"Then it must be an unknown unit. The Sontaran fools have broadcast their signal on detectable radio waves. It must be a wide – ranging one, and therefore very important. They have no idea that we are listening in! We were right that they are trying to take Earth. We shall ensure their new great assault does not go unnoticed!"

He then turned to another Rutan on duty in the control centre.

"Send a scout. Tell them to observe the Sontaran activity over Earth, and find out the meaning and significance of this "ATMOS". Then they shall call us in to engage their fleet in the Sol system. We cannot let them capture Earth! We shall achieve victory once again, for Ruta 3, for Rutan queen, for Rutan host, for Rutan glory!"

The smaller Rutan pressed a number of controls, with a 3-D computer graphic appearing of a scout ship and the scout's number – recon 2562. The scout was informed by means of a message on the overhead speaker. He promptly made his way to one of the carrier's massive hangars. Here his scout ship was docked, small and spherical. Alongside it were countless other smaller ships – fighters, scout ships, boarding craft, shuttles and many others. But the Rutan scout paid no attention, focused solely on its mission to Earth. Individual curiosities and feelings were of no importance. Only the great Rutan host mattered.

The scout climbed into his ship, and the hatch sealed itself. The docking claw that held it in place released its grip, and the crystalline organic sphere hovered for a moment. Then its rear engines ignited, and manoeuvred its way out of the hangar, and into open space. Soon it was separate from the fleet, and engaged hyper speed engines, travelling faster than light. With a flash of light it left the fleet completely.

Soon enough, the Rutan scout ship reached the edge of the Sol system, above Sol 9, known to humans as Pluto. The scout knew that it was vital to avoid detection, which was why it chose to materialise from hyperspace at a distance from Earth. In addition, it activated the ship's stealth system, making it invisible to radar, and to the naked eye. Such ships were as good at infiltration as their operators. The scout piloted his vessel at high speed, using charts of this system drawn up by the Rutan navy on their last visit here, over a century before. The ship passed all the planets from Pluto to Mars (or Sol 4 as it was known to the Rutans) before arriving in orbit around Earth's single barren moon. From here, the ship could use its advanced observation technology to spy on the Sontaran fleet, which scout and ship could now clearly see. As Rutan intelligence had said, it was formed of a single mother ship with a complement of battle pods. But what was more interesting was the state of the planet below.

The whole atmosphere seemed to be covered by some form of white fog. The scout was confused. That had not appeared on the old reconnaissance images of the planet. Was it of the Sontarans doing? A gas attack was not part of the usual Sontaran tactic. Perhaps they wanted to take this world quickly, on account of their desperate situation. The scout tuned in to the ship's listening equipment, which monitored transmissions between the Sontaran mother ship and forces on the ground. This produced another surprise, as the main communications were not with shock troops on the ground, but with automated devices. The computer deduced that these devices were producing the gas, and hacked into the Sontaran communications network to find that they were all hidden inside primitive human transport devices on the planet's surface. The computer also found that these devices were designated "ATMOS", explaining that unknown word on the intercepted signal.

"A clever tactic" the Rutan mused. "The Sontarans have become cowardly. That shall please us. They are losing the will to fight openly. Computer, analyse the gas used."

The Computer used the ship's sensors to determine the nature of the gas. It was a substance poisonous to humans, most definitely. But what it actually was stunned the scout. It was clone feed, the substance that fed the Sontarans through their probic vents, and stimulated reproduction. Now the Rutan understood. The enemy were gassing the planet not just to kill humans, but to use it as a base to breed a mighty army of millions, perhaps billions. Such figures could make up for losses inflicted by the Rutans countless times over. They could very easily reverse the tide of the war in their favour. They had to be stopped. But the scout could do nothing alone. The scout vessel was to lightly armed for an engagement against a Sontaran battle fleet.

The scout sent a long-range message to the fleet, informing them of what it had seen. A reply soon came in, informing the scout that the fleet were at full battle stations and ready for engagement. They would reach this position in a few hours. The scout just hoped that they would be there in time. Once the Sontarans were defeated, they would have to find a way of removing the toxic gas, preventing the use of the planet by the Sontarans as a powerbase.

But suddenly, the mobilisation of hunter fleet _Gamma _was rendered needless. The first the scout saw was an explosion in the atmosphere, over Earth's northern hemisphere. Then the atmosphere was engulfed in flames. What was happening? It didn't seem logical to the Rutan that the Sontarans would convert the planet's atmosphere to what they wanted, and then burn it. Within minutes every trace of the clone feed gas had burned away. The ship's sensors detected no more. The scout could not understand this. The only explanation was that the humans had found some way of foiling the Sontaran plan. If so, that was good for the Rutans.

However, that brave effort of resistance would be bad for the humans, due to a Sontaran backlash. The sensors detected that the mother ship was deploying and charging its photonic missile turrets. The enemy had decided to bombard the planet to a lifeless waste. If so, that was no concern of the Rutans. If the Sontarans now felt that capture of the planet was impossible, that was a good thing from the Rutan point of view. Still, the enemy fleet had to be destroyed, and the scout did not tell the Rutan fleet to hold position.

Yet a few minutes later, another totally unexpected event occurred. The Sontaran carrier was engulfed by an internal explosion, which soon disintegrated the entire ship. The battle pods that had been serving as an escort were also engulfed in the explosion. The 10th Sontaran battle fleet had been totally destroyed, almost right on cue with the failiure of their plan to gas the planet. Barely believing what had happened, the scout sent a new message to the fleet, informing them of what had been seen. The reply took some time, indicating that they were finding the events as incredible as the scout did. But a reply did come through. It informed the scout that they were holding position on the edge of the solar system, out of sight. But there was more. The scout had new orders. The Rutan controller had been very intrigued by the Sontaran use of ATMOS devices to gas the planet as a way of taking it over, and terraforming it for their own purposes. That tactic might have failed this time, but it could work quite effectively on other planets. It could help the Sontarans win the war, by taking over multiple worlds and raising an army of trillions. For that reason, the scout was ordered to land on Earth, retrieve an ATMOS device, and bring it back to the fleet for further study. The message contained an emphasis that if the Rutans did not find a way of countering ATMOS, the balance of power could shift disastrously. A massive Sontaran army could storm Ruta 3 and kill the queen, destroying the entire Rutan hive intelligence. The Sontarans would dominate the galaxy, with implications for all inhabitants of the galaxy under Sontaran rule. The scout understood – the Rutan host had to be preserved. Individual doubts and qualms were unimportant to the host.

The Scout ship fired up its small put powerful engines, taking it out of lunar orbit. Remaining completely invisible, the Rutan entered Earth orbit, aiming to land inconspicuously. As with the last time a Rutan scout landed, some one hundred years before, no one could be allowed to know of a Rutan visit to Earth, least of all the Sontarans. The vessel's retro rockets fired as it entered the atmosphere undetected by primitive Earth radar. The pilot aimed to land in an unexpected place – a small patch of sea east of a large island. The sensors detected that the sea was rough as a result of a fierce storm, but that was no hindrance. The glowing crystalline sphere broke through the black storm clouds that poured torrents of heavy rain, and skimmed across the great waves of the North Sea. Then it suddenly dived, submerging itself in calm depths. Like its pilot, the ship was amphibious, and continued its journey under the sea. Soon it arrived at the mouth of an estuary that formed the beginning of a great river, which flowed from the rough sea through a great city. All of this was shown on the Rutan sensors. Here, in the city of London, the scout was certain to find an ATMOS device.

The scout landed the ship underwater, on the muddy bed of the Thames. It then moved itself out of the cockpit and into a small airlock. The Rutan moved silently, floating like some ghost. That way, the creature was very mobile out of water as well as in water, where it was headed for now. The alien moved into the airlock, which closed behind it before filling with water. The glowing green entity then left its ship, into the soothing cold waters of the river Thames. The ship's sensors had also shown the air temperature to be favourable for Rutans – it was a cold night tonight.

With swift pulsating motions of its glowing body, the Rutan swam up to the surface. Once there, it began to look for a good place to come ashore. As it swam about on the surface, seabirds scattered in terror at the sight of the green monster. Then the Rutan spotted something – it was a human walking on the brightly lit riverbank, dressed in a blue uniform, checking out some kind of primitive transport device – the same fitted with ATMOS devices. Sure enough, the car was marked with the label "ATMOS". This human clearly served the function of inspecting cars. That would provide the scout with good cover for removing an ATMOS device.

The Rutan swam close to where the traffic warden was inspecting the car, and found that the riverbank was not natural – the river was divided from the shore by an artificial concrete wall, smooth and steep in construction. This was no problem for the scout. It swam up to the wall, and clung to its vertical surface without falling off, and slithered up on to the pavement.

The traffic warden was still busy signing a parking ticket on the car when he heard a wet slithering sound behind him. He slowly turned round to see something that made his jaw drop. Something wet, slimy, pulsating, green and glowing, bathed in the street light. It then rose from the ground and floated towards him, like some predatory jellyfish. The man had just begun to draw in breath to scream when a bolt of electrical energy shot out from the thing and hit him in the chest. Within a few seconds, he knew no more.

The scout floated over the dead body, and then smothered it with its thin tentacles. It began to copy the traffic warden's DNA, assimilating the dead man's mind, form and memories. Once that was done, a hazy blur surrounded the scout as it assumed the perfect form of the dead traffic warden. The reincarnated warden grinned with satisfaction, before dumping the lifeless body in the dark waters of the Thames. The false traffic warden gained all the knowledge of the former one, and now knew how such a pitiful creature fitted into human society. The Rutan wrote the ticket for the car anyway, and stuck on the windscreen before beginning a search for the ATMOS device. The knowledge this human possessed told him that it was under the bonnet. The false warden began to lift up the bonnet, before being interrupted by a series of shouts.

"Hey you!"

The Rutan turned to see a man in an England shirt, with a bald head and the look of a street thug, stride towards the false warden. This was obviously the owner of the car, and was clearly drunk, having just returned from a pub. He was showing an aggressive stance, and carried a beer bottle in his hand.

"Yes you! That's my car that is! I've got it parked right, get it! What the hell are you doing, lifting up my bonnet! That's my property that is!"

The false warden used the mind of the dead warden to come up with an explanation.

"I'm sorry sir. But you're parked on the yellow lines. I'm checking your ATMOS device in order to register you as an offender."

"They don't work anymore, where the hell have you been?!"

"I'm sorry sir, but I must…"

The yob didn't listen. Shouting expletives, he swung the beer bottle and smashed it right across the traffic warden's face. But then something happened that the man did not expect. Instead of blood, the warden's face seemed to flicker, like a faulty television. Then his whole body began to flicker, until it was phased out completely. In his place something glowing and green floated just above the pavement, with drifting tentacles like some giant jellyfish on land. At first the yob took it to be a drunken vision (which he had had many of that night) but then it seemed horribly real when it began to advance towards him, and spoke to him in the most terrifying voice he had ever heard.

"You will regret that you did that to us, human."

The yob was terrified for one of the first times in his life.

"W-W-What a-are y-you?

The monster closed in on him, until he was sprawled on the ground, just where it was floating, with its tentacles stretching towards him.

"That is not important to you. You shall shortly die."

And with that it sent a powerful bioelectric shock straight through his body, causing it to shake violently before going limp. Then the Rutan returned to its traffic warden form, and once again dumped the dead body into the river before returning to its work on the car bonnet. The ATMOS device was not difficult to find, and with a few bioelectric jolts, it was freed from the car. Once the scout had the device, it then fed on the electrical energy from the car battery, which gave it a substantial meal, recharging its bioelectric sting. It then returned to its natural from, with the device clutched in its tentacles, and returned to the river. Moments later, only the sight of a large splash in the middle of the river, along with the sound of a powerful engine, marked the departure of the Rutan ship, carrying with it a captured Sontaran device to the Rutan fleet, ensuring that the balance of power in the galaxy was kept. The failure of the new Sontaran stratagem was now complete.

As had been planned, no one ever knew of the Rutan visit to London. The only report that showed something had happened was a bizarre BBC News story of two missing persons and an ATMOS device stolen from an illegally parked car. The bodies were never found, having been carried far out to sea. However, the incident still provoked a host of conspiracy theories in light of the alien gas attack on Earth. But none of these theories were even close to the truth.


End file.
